Search with Candour

Welcome to season 5 of Search with Candour!

Jack sits down with SEO veteran Charlie Whitworth to discuss whether SEO and “GEO” are essentially the same and which traditional SEO strategies still work for AI search.

Follow Charlie

• Whitworth SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/
• HIVE MCR: https://hive-mcr.co.uk/
• AIR SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/air-seo-ai-ready-seo-campaigns/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-authentic-seo/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whitworthseo.bsky.social
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hivemcr/

Chapters

00:00 Highlight

01:36 Introduction

04:27 Meet Charlie Whitworth

05:33 Why this matters now

10:43 Good SEO = Good GEO

14:05 GEO bro debate

15:56 Data and measurement

21:46 KPIs that still matter

25:12 Technical SEO still wins

27:28 Content structure for LLMs

35:46 Pruning and cannibalisation

38:40 Content pruning done right

41:06 Brand mentions vs backlinks

44:34 Good products beat spam

47:07 Old tactics you need to stop

49:03 Testing and reprioritising

51:03 No silver bullets for GEO

56:39 Ignore the noise

58:11 Cloudflare bot settings

01:01:18 Recommendations: Log file analysis

01:05:03 Recommendation tool: WAIKAY

01:07:22 Fun recommendation: The Streets

01:08:40 Wrap up

Recorded the day after the first SearchNorwichXL, this episode recaps the last four weeks of SEO news from the Core Updates newsletter:

Google rolling out google.com/goto pass-through URLs to deter scraping amid the SERP API lawsuit (with rank-tracking tools finding workarounds); Google Search Console’s generative AI performance reporting rolling out globally, showing impressions for AI Overviews/AI Mode, alongside a toggle to opt sites out of generative AI features without affecting organic rankings; data suggesting nearly all People Also Ask results are AI-generated; and a Google AI Contribution pilot in Search Console that tests paying publishers when their content significantly contributes to AI-generated responses in Gemini, AI Overviews, and AI Mode.

News stories

• https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-goto-tracking-41957.html
• https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-ai-performance-reports-and-search-generative-ai-control-rolling-out-globally-486269
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7503164423075725313/
• https://9to5google.com/2026/09/17/google-ai-contribution-pilot-tests-paying-websites-when-theyre-used-in-ai-results/

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and recap

01:11 SearchNorwichXL highlights

02:15 September 2026 news

02:40 Google’s new goto redirect URLs

05:26 GSC AI reports rollout

08:42 AI Overviews takeover People Also Ask

11:15 Google pilots new publisher payment program

15:44 Season five teaser

17:21 Wrap up

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a crossover episode of Search With Candour with Mel Barfield from Indie Business Club, discussing personal branding through shared interests, authenticity, and community.

The conversation covers balancing personal brand with employed work, using hobbies (ranging from board games and films to music and cheese) to create relatable connections, and how small signals like presenting yourself authentically can create new connections.

Jack & Mel also discuss how who you work with affects your brand reputation and why being nerdy about the things you care about is so important.

Follow Mel:

• Website: https://allcopymel.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniebarfield/ 
• Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0DTopTvMDkklkmpAfshIjW
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@indiebusinessclubpod

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

00:25 How Jack and Mel met

03:23 Freelancing advice

09:05 Building your brand with podcasting

14:42 Nerd Signals That Connect

16:14 Board games and playtime

21:21 Content consumption habits

24:08 Band t-shirts and relatability

25:58 Cheese discussion

30:49 The ethics of who you work with

33:17 LinkedIn gurus

35:55 Choose your clients carefully

42:31 Should you niche down?

44:21 Essentialism and focus

48:38 Futureproof your personal brand

53:44 How to be relatable

59:19 See It. Say It. Sorted.

01:04:45 Hobbies create connections and opportunities

01:08:19 Align your personal brand with your values

01:09:41 Find your audience

01:11:33 Don’t write like your audience is children (unless they’re children)

01:14:46 Curiosity builds rapport

01:18:39 Being nerdy works

01:22:46 Building a brand while employed

01:27:20 Conference recognition

01:29:21 Hot takes on LinkedIn

01:34:13 Wrap up

01:41:42 Where to follow us

🌟 SearchNorwichXL - 24 September 2026: https://searchnorwich.org/

🎟️Get your tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/searchnorwichxl-a-one-day-seo-conference-with-world-class-speakers-tickets-1985283700992?discount=podcast

Jack Chambers-Ward previews SearchNorwichXLand shares two talks from past SearchNorwich events:

First, Seb Atkinson shows how ChatGPT’s Code Interpreter is the cheat code you need to start automating SEO tasks and improve your data analysis abilities using Python - no prior coding skills required!

Seb discusses the kinds of SEO activities you can automate with Python and how to use ChatGPT to get started, including what tools to use, example projects and prompts, how to resolve errors, and how to use ChatGPT to develop your own coding skills.

Second, Mark Williams-Cook from Search Norwich 19, explains why using conceptual models is doing "advanced SEO" and what he learned from the Google exploit he discovered last year. 

Also, Mark describes how SEO is just like the video Theme Park (yes, seriously)

⌚ Time stamps

00:00 Introduction

02:39 ChatGPT's Code Interpreter: Your secret weapon for SEO automation success - Seb Atkinson

20:33 Improving your SEO with conceptual models - Mark Williams-Cook

47:03 Wrap Up

Topics discussed:

• New EU transparency rules requiring clear labelling of AI-generated or AI-altered content across formats

• Microsoft Clarity is adding branded vs non-branded segmentation for AI query/citation reporting and share of authority

• Anthropic’s Claude embedding watermarks/metadata

• Google is expanding AI Mode with interactive visualisations, quizzes, Lens learning features, and Notebook/Gemini integrations

• Google is introducing google.com/goto redirecting tracking URLs aimed at reducing scraping abuse, with major rank-tracking tools saying it doesn’t impact tracking data

News stories:

• https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/08/02/ai-generated-label-becomes-mandatory-in-the-eu-for-companies
• https://clarity.microsoft.com/blog/branded-non-branded-queries/
• https://www.cloudflare.com/press/press-releases/2026/cloudflare-adds-aeo-visibility-dashboard-to-its-aeo-suite-showing-brands-whether-ai-assistants-are-recommending-them/
• https://support.claude.com/en/articles/16266773-how-claude-marks-ai-generated-content
• https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-goto-tracking-41957.html

Time stamps

00:00 Coming up on the show

00:26 Introduction

01:45 EU AI-labelling rules

06:31 Microsoft Clarity AI brand query filters

11:31 Claude watermarking update

15:45 Google AI visual tools

22:49 Google anti-scraping URLs

25:54 What’s coming up on season 5

28:05 Wrap up

Jack Chambers-Ward continues the hype for SearchNorwichXL by highlighting talks from Arnout Hellemans and Brendan Bennett, who will be speaking at SearchNorwichXL.

Arnout’s talk from SearchNorwich 16 is titled ‘How to work on your SEO without paying for tools’, and Brendan’s talk from SearchNorwich 19 is titled ‘It’s not me, it’s you: Why your SEO or agency (probably) hates you’

🎟️ Get 25% off SearchNorwichXL tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/searchnorwichxl-tickets-1985283700992?discount=podcast

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

03:19 Arnout Hellemans’ talk

23:43 In-between talks

24:26 Brendan Bennett’s talk

49:18 Wrap up

Jack Chambers-Ward and Mark Williams-Cook present a preview of SearchNorwichXL, their upcoming conference on 24 September 2026.

Mark and Jack discuss the talks they’re looking forward to and give a preview of what to expect on the day.

Use ‘MONDAYSWC’ to get 20% off your tickets: ⁠https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/searchnorwichxl-tickets-1985283700992?discount=mondayswc⁠For more information about SearchNorwichXL: https://searchnorwich.org/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:29 Mark’s first pick: Arnout Hellemans

08:36 Jack’s first pick: Giulia Panozzo

16:37 Mark’s second pick: Adam Gent

25:22 Jack’s second pick: Future Of Search Panel

31:14 Mark’s third pick: Myriam Jessier

39:14 Jack’s third pick: Martin Splitt

42:20 Discount code and tickets

43:43 Mark’s upcoming speaking schedule

46:55 Thanks and wrap up

Candour’s Principal SEO Consultant, Brendan Bennett and Design Lead Mark Salisbury join Search with Candour to discuss the growing overlap between SEO, design, UX, and brand, and how AI/LLMs and emerging agentic experiences affect the way we build and use websites.

The Candour trio also explore what brand means beyond just a logo, how third-party signals like reviews, Reddit, and search results shape perception, and how SEOs measure brand through metrics such as brand search volume, sentiment, and frameworks like Google’s HEART.

The conversation covers trust signals, page clarity, semantic HTML, the tension between brand-led copy and keyword-focused headings, and the risk of AI-generated “slop” versus human differentiation.

Follow Mark and Brendan:

• Website: https://withcandour.co.uk/
• Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-salisbury-701b8911/
• Brendan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendanbennett1989/

Chapters

00:00 Welcome, Brendan Bennett and Mark Salisbury

01:09 Design vs SEO No Versus

03:01 Why Brand Matters Now

09:45 Defining Brand Beyond Logos

17:17 Brand Metrics and Frameworks

22:40 SERP Signals and Trust Issues

27:19 When Brand Beats SEO

33:01 AI Websites and Human Proof

36:12 Luxury Branding vs AI Content

42:05 Websites as Experiences

42:48 Designing for Agents

43:50 Trust and Spend Thresholds

45:47 Technical SEO Meets Semantics

49:10 Brand Voice vs Keywords

53:31 Traffic vs Conversion Tradeoffs

56:43 What Makes a Site Good

59:04 Trust Signals and UX Proof

01:02:14 Vibe Coding and Web Slop

01:03:44 Future of SEO and Design

01:08:51 Recommendations: Actionable tips

01:12:00 Recommendations: Tools to try

01:15:23 Recommendations: Fun things like dancing and video games

Jack Chambers-Ward hosts a July 2026 AI search and SEO news roundup on Search With Candour.

This episode covers everything from new Google Trends features and social media data tracking in Google Search Console to research about ads in Google AI Mode and if Google punishes AI-generated content.

Links to articles

• https://www.linkedin.com/posts/analyzing-search-interest-just-got-more-powerful-share-7478017577340968960-qsi3/
• https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7480247562084638720/
• https://seranking.com/blog/google-ai-mode-ads/
• https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/google-com-is-now-ai-mode-s-2-cited-domain
• https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-doesnt-punish-ai-content/
• https://www.similarweb.com/corp/reports/2026-generative-ai-landscape/
• https://www.axios.com/2026/07/23/yelp-reviews-chatgpt-geo-partnership

Chapters

00:00 Coming up on this episode

00:29 Introduction

01:53 Live Podcast returns on 7 October 2026

04:19 Google Trends new comparison feature

09:31 ChatGPT adds Yelp reviews

12:35 SE Ranking study: Ads in AI Mode

18:39 Profound study: Google cites itself more

23:01 Ahrefs study: Does Google punish AI content?

29:37 SimilarWeb Generative AI Report

36:33 Wrap up

Liv Day and Ellie Wraith from Digitaloft join Search with Candour to explain how to turn client expertise into SEO gold and why you need to create content your competitors can’t copy.

They explain why unique, non-commodity content matters more in the AI era, how to extract insights from hesitant clients, and how to build processes (checklists, writer access to experts, ongoing client questions) to ensure information gain.

They discuss using first-party data (sales, customer service transcripts), surveys, and sources like Reddit to uncover real audience pain points, plus repurposing interviews and video assets across site pages based on page goals.

Follow Liv & Ellie:

Digitaloft: https://digitaloft.co.uk/

Liv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-day-seo/

Ellie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliewraith/

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Search with Candour

02:46 Introducing Ellie Wraith

03:38 Introducing Liv Day

04:30 Why expertise matters now

09:48 Measuring information gain

15:12 Client chats vs keyword research

18:17 Handling hesitant experts

27:25 Personal brands and authority

32:53 What is trust in the AI era

35:10 Convincing clients to get on camera

37:04 Proving real Experts

39:30 Repurposing your content and assets

41:58 Technical difficulties

42:05 Finding Proprietary Data

46:50 Measuring Content Success

51:03 Recommendations: Ask more questions and prioritise based on your bottom line

54:01 Recommendations: Collate customer service data and check Reddit

56:44 Recommendations: Summer gigs and Widow’s Bay

59:00 Where to Follow and Wrap